Link: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/wrestling/article808724.ece

This could be interesting. The Hulkster is apparently planning to start his own wrestling promotion to compete with the increasingly irrelevant WWE. The intriguing part is that he seems to want to move wrestling back to its glory days of larger-than-life caricatures and colorful costumes. I pretty much stopped watching WWE shows right around the time it lost its WWF name in 2002. Around that time they also lost most of their best starts including The Rock, Steve Austin and Mick Foley. All that's left now is a roster of indistinguishable 'roided-up muscle-heads in black tights lacking any discernable gimmicks or personality, and equally dull bimbos called "Divas" that do nothing but stand around in their underwear.

Still, even during these dark days, you can always count on occasional short moments of greatness. Now with the passing of the Fabulous Moulah, these moments are becoming few and far between. There is however a bizarre story line going on right now that only Vince McMahon himself could have crafted. It involves a magical leprechaun named Hornswaggle who also happens to be Vince's illegitimate child. You can read all about it at Wrestlecrap.com. For me, Hornswaggle illustrates well the biggest hurdle Hulk Hogan has to overcome with his new wrestling show. Even in the WWE's darkest hour, you can still count on Vince McMahon to come up with something crazy and unpredictable. While I welcome the Hulkster's call for a return to gimmicks and colorful characters, I fear that Hogan just doesn't have what it takes to think-up the kind of strange and irreverent stuff that Vince loves to do. Anyway, I look forward to finding out just what Hulk has in store.

I never got a chance to attend one of these shows while I was in Japan. It looks so awesome that I just might have to go back to Japan just to see a show live.

Link: http://www.thestate.com/local/story/219934.html

Nobody was responsible for more funny memorable moments in the WWF/WWE than The Fabulous Moolah and her cohort Mae Young. You will be missed.

Aloha everybody! I wrote recently about how the unexplained death of former WWF Superstar Brian "Crush" Adams a few weeks ago inspired me to seek out his awesome 1993 song 'Cold Crush' from 'Wrestlemania: The Album.' As you may recall, I was surprised at just how rare and hard-to-find a song it would be. While it didn't take me long to track down 'Wrestlemania: The Album', Crush's single was conspicuouly absent. Turns out, for whatever reason, that particular track was only included on the U.K. and Canadian releases of the album. I began to worry that I might never hear this wonderful song again. Well, a few days ago I was visitig my parents' house and took the opportunity to dig up my old 'Wrestlemania: The Album' CD. Sure enough, the single 'Cold Crush' was right there on track 10, between 'I'm Perfect' by the late Mr. Perfect and 'Hard Times' by the late Big Boss Man. The song was just as fun as I remembered it, however given the mysterious circumstances surounding his death it's hard not to wonder if he failed to listen to his own advice when he sings "Stay away from drugs. Life is hard enough, and you need all the help you can get brotha, and drugs is a dead end road". Now, without further adieu...

Click here to listen to Cold Crush!

"One at a time, two at a time... I live for competition!"

Get your heart a-pumpin'! He gets the party jumpin'!

This is without question my favorite song of all time. I used to listen to it all the time with my friends during my highschool days... that is until my CD mysteriously went missing at a party hosted by my arch nemesis Carolyn. I was pretty bummed out about that. The song was just one of many great tracks off the 1993 CD "Wrestlemania: The Album", which I just learned was produced by none other than American Idol's Simon Cowell! One can only speculate how his involvement in the world of pro-wrestling might have helped shape his present on-air persona.

Anyway, for years I was forced to go without ever hearing my favorite song in the whole world. Strangely enough, despite being totally awesome, the music of Macho Man Randy Savage is pretty hard to find on the airwaves or store shelves. Even his much publicized solo album "Be A Man" isn't that easy to come by these days. Thankfully, the Internet came along a few years later and "Speaking from the Heart" was mine once again!
Not only could I listen to Macho's wonderful song, but I once again had all the other great hits off Wrestlemania: The Album. Tatanka, Bret Heart, Big Boss Man, Mr. Perfect and Hacksaw Jim Duggan all contributed tracks. I had them all once again! All, except one that is.

The other day I read that former WWF wrestler Brian "Crush" Adams had mysteriously passed away in his home, and thus adding his name to the long list of pro-wrestlers that have tragically died young. What media reports on the death failed to mention however is that Brian Adams was more than just a wrestler, he was also musician, just like his Canadian namesake. Few people realize that Crush had recorded a song for 'Wrestlemania: The Album' back during his short-lived "Hawaian Crush" gimmick. I wanted to listen to it for old time sake and maybe post it here for you all to enjoy. In the song the roided-up Crush says "Aloha" a bunch of times and rather hypocritically tells kids to stay off drugs. Sadly I discovered that the MP3 for that song was nowhere to be found. After a little research I uncovered that the song had not been released on the American version of the album. The online versions that I've found so far have all lacked this track, so the search goes on I'm afraid.

Anyway, while searching for the song I made two other very interesting discoveries. The first was a weird Bollywood movie featuring Crush fighting The Undertaker on a roof across the street from the Skydome here in Toronto. The second was an old WWF tape called "Superstars: The Music Videos" that featured four music videos from my long lost Wrestlemania: The Album! Imagine my joy upon learning that a music video existed for my favorite song, introduced by none other than Macho himself! While the video really doesn't do the song justice, I'm still happy to have finally seen it after all these years. Ohhh Yeah!!!

Check out three more videos from "Superstars: The Videos" after the jump!

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Passion, the last of the Salseros, dances the Bomba with local Toronto indy wrestler Don Paysan at an awesome UWA vs. Toryumon event in Mississauga this past Saturday.

Passion also faced Larry Sweeney in a dance-off on night one of the event.

For more exciting photos from this momentous event...

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Link: http://www.torontoist.com/archives/2007/02/a_look_at_toron.php

I wrote an article today for Torontoist about Toronto's local wrestling scene. You can read it here.

Now that everyone has had their fill of Hard Gay, it's time for a new face to take the Japanese wrestling world by storm! Pro-wrestling has become increasingly dark, mean spirited and less funny over the past 10 years or so. If there's one thing it needs right now, it's Happy Man!

Kate has been helping me collect as much information on former Salsero Takeshi Minamino's new alter ego. Apparently from what we can gather, Happy Man is an alien prince from the M77 nebula Happy Star. His goal in life is a rather lofty one, namely to bring about world peace. Beyond that, we don't know much about him. If only we could somehow be back in Aomori right now and catch him in action bringing happiness to a world that desperately needs it.